The Working Class Movement Library’s new series of Invisible Histories free talks starts up again on Wednesday 9 February at the later than usual time of 3pm, when Kirstie Blair and Iona Craig from the Piston, Pen & Press project will give a free online only talk on the topic ‘Industrial workers and reading spaces in Manchester, Salford and the North’. This first talk in … Continue reading WCML free talks programme kicks off for Spring 2022
he Working Class Movement Library offers an impressive and extensive series of talks, all of which are live-streamed and subsequently made available on its YouTube channel. Its autumn 2021 series of ‘Invisible Histories’ ranges from Thomas Spence to Jayaben Desai, and from the Social Democratic Federation to Militant Continue reading Great online events at the WCML for autumn 2021
The PDF document below includes an overview of new collections which were reported by archives to the Society for the Study of Labour History’s Archive and Resources sub-committee (SSLH-ARC) and which may be of interest to labour historians. Among the numerous collections noted by the SSLH-ARC are: Archive material relating to the Pilkington strike and to pottery workers – now in the Working Class Movement … Continue reading Additions to labour history archive collections 2020
A ‘verbatim’ account of the trial of Henry Hunt and others arrested after Peterloo has been digitised with financial support from the SSLH. Continue reading SSLH-backed project brings Peterloo trial report online
This photo dates from 1934, during the nine-month strike by 650 workers at the firm of Richard Johnson & Nephew Ltd, Wiredrawers, of Forge Lane, Bradford, Manchester. Strike leaders Alf Bywater and Bill Dunn are shown addressing the workers. The cause of the strike was the introduction of a system designed to maximise productivity: the Bedaux System. This represented a method of time and motion … Continue reading Manchester wiredrawers’ strike, 1934
This is a pamphlet from the Peace Collection held at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford. From August 1914 until January 1916, the British government relied on volunteers to produce an army to fight on the Western Front and other areas of the war. Towards the end of 1915, a reduction in the numbers volunteering and the sheer scale of casualties meant that conscription … Continue reading Conscientous objectors: A Gaol Bird’s Lay
My dissertation examines the way in which the British Left contributed to the anti-fascist cause in 1930s Europe. I will observe how the British Left reacted to the rise of fascism within Germany, Austria and Italy, whilst also exploring their reaction towards Oswald Mosley and the BUF at home. This dissertation will attempt to draw attention to how key campaigners sought to gain wider support … Continue reading Dan Horne (Northumbria) on the British Left’s response to fascism at home and in Europe
With generous financial backing from SSLH, in the summer of 2017 I was able to travel to various sites to undertake research for my MA dissertation entitled ‘Notes on a Community Struggle:’ Big Flame, Women, and The Kirkby Resistance. Big Flame were a radical New Left organisation, whose unique commitment to both socialism and feminism renders them vital to the narrative of 1970s activism in … Continue reading Kerrie McGiveron (Liverpool) on Big Flame, women and the Tower Hill Base Group
The great E.P. Thompson wrote in his magisterial The Making of the English Working Class that ‘1819 was a rehearsal for 1832’. Thompson drew a direct line from the Peterloo Massacre to the Great Reform Act. Indeed, the crowd of 60,000 that gathered in an open space near St. Peter’s Church in central Manchester on August 16, 1819, came to hear reform-minded speakers. Famously, the … Continue reading David Strittmatter (Buffalo) on the erasure of St Peter’s Field as a site of commemoration
The Society has issued a a letter in support of the Working Class Movement Library in Salford after recent accusations made in an election pamphlet by Robin Garrido. Garrido, a councillor and leader of Salford Conservative party, claims that the WCML “is not a proper accessible library, you need to make an appointment to visit. Also you can’t borrow books like you can at an ordinary library.” … Continue reading Maxine Peake and the SSLH support the WCML
Society for the Study of Labour History 